Who will replace Michael Baumgartner? Spokane County GOP releases names, questionnaires for potential new Spokane County treasurer

The candidates being considered for a nomination to be Spokane County’s next treasurer include a pair of treasurer’s office employees, some previous contenders for public office and a few political newcomers.

The Spokane County Republican Party released its list of eight candidates interested in serving as the next treasurer through the end of 2026, after Rep. Michael Baumgartner vacated the role earlier this month for his newly elected position in Congress.

Those interested in replacing Baumgartner include Spokane hairstylist Patti Usselman, treasurer’s office employee John Christina, commercial real estate broker Matt Hawkins, Army veteran Robert Miceli, tech businessman Victor Yefremov, former Spokane Public Schools teacher Natalie Poulson, Spokane Valley businessman Mike Kelly and Chief Deputy Treasurer and state Rep. Mike Volz.

As the affiliated party of the outgoing treasurer, the Spokane County GOP is responsible for providing three nominations to the Spokane County Commission to consider to serve the remainder of Baumgartner’s term. The party plans to meet and select nominees Jan. 18.

Rob Linebarger, chair of the county GOP, said the list does not preclude others from being named as one of three finalists. Instead, it represents those who went through the party’s endorsement vetting process.

Any precinct committee officer could nominate someone not on the list for consideration at the Jan. 18 meeting, where candidates will have five minutes to speak, the nomination PCO has two minutes to speak and the PCO who seconds the motion will have one minute to speak.

Those who went through the party’s vetting process submitted biographies and completed questionnaires that are available to view on the party’s website. They also participated in interviews with the party’s candidate committee, and each person was ranked based on a weighted score given to their questionnaire responses and interview performance.

“We evaluate not only how they present themselves, but how they align with our party platform and how strong their positions are when they articulate them, things like that,” Linebarger said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re running for cemetery district commissioner or governor, they all do the same questionnaire.”

Linebarger said how the candidates stacked up in the rankings will be made public at a later time.

Earlier this year, the party’s scores for the several Republican candidates vying to replace former Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers were initially miscalculated, and the error was only caught after the scores were published online. The materials published at the time also included critiques of the candidates that later had to be walked back.

“We don’t want to bias the process too heavily,” Linebarger said.

Missing from the list is Matt Hanson, who Baumgartner endorsed to replace him following the November election. Hanson, the owner of Dye Seed, a seed processor headquartered in Pomeroy, served as co-chair of Baumgartner’s congressional campaign’s finance committee before receiving the nod from the congressman.

Linebarger said Hanson started the vetting process but retracted his name from consideration shortly after it got underway.

“I gave it a second, third and fourth look and determined I just have too much work coming up this year,” Hanson said.

Spokane County residents may be familiar with Volz for his seven years representing the state’s 6th Legislative District, which includes Airway Heights and much of the West Plains, areas north of Spokane and portions of the city’s north side, including Indian Trail and Hillyard.

Voters re-elected Volz to serve a fifth term in Olympia in November, and he has served as the second-in-command for the treasurer’s office since 2011.

Hawkins, Poulson and Kelly have all launched unsuccessful political campaigns in recent elections. Last year, Hawkins lost a bid for state auditor, and Kelly failed to win a state Senate seat representing the Valley, while Poulson unsuccessfully challenged Spokane state Rep. Tim Ormsby in 2022.

Poulson was an employee of Spokane Public Schools for 18 years before  she resigned after refusing to wear a mask on school grounds amid COVID-19 masking mandates. In 2021, she and several other staff members at Finch Elementary School, including the principal, were escorted from the building after a protest in which they refused  to comply with the mandate for public employees.

During her legislative run the next year, Poulson declined to answer questions related to abortion, saying it was not an issue legislators in Washington needed to speak on.

In the recent GOP questionnaire, she disclosed her position on the issue as pro-life. The treasurer has no policy -making powers but Linebarger said the question related to abortion is asked to see how the candidates align with the party platform. It is always included regardless of the elected position, he said.

Kelly attempted to replace outgoing state Sen. Mike Padden this past election cycle, but failed to make it out of a crowded primary after details of his stint in federal prison surfaced. Kelly disclosed in interviews, candidate forums and campaign events a brush with the law, but provided few details.

Court records show a grand jury indicted Kelly in October 1989 on multiple drug and firearm charges: attempted possession of cocaine, conspiring to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute and three counts of carrying firearms in relation to a drug trafficking crime. All stemmed from an evening in June 1989 when he and an associate purchased a kilogram of cocaine from an undercover Portland Police Bureau officer for $75,000.

Kelly, who is CFO for KT Contracting Company in Spokane Valley and owns several real estate holdings and management companies, wrote in his questionnaire that he has had “no criminal charges or activity in the subsequent 35 plus years.”

Hawkins said in his questionnaire responses that he has more than 30 years of experience in the private sector managing information systems, financials and business operations. He  is a former associate broker at the commercial real estate firm Kiemle Hagood, and believes the treasurer should be able to weigh in on whether local taxes “are justified,” he wrote.

Usselman is an active GOP precinct committee officer, and owns and operates the salon Patti Usselman Hair.STYLE out of her home on the West Plains. She has nearly 40 years of management, consulting and entrepreneurship experience, including her 14 years as a salon owner, according to her questionnaire.

Christina, an Air Force veteran, worked in the treasurer’s office from 2015 to 2020 as a finance deputy focused on investments. He said in his questionnaire responses that he was recently hired back by the county in the same capacity, and that his experience in the office and private sector have prepared him for the job.

Christina has been a vocal supporter of the creation of a 51st state called Liberty, a proposed Christian conservative state that would encompass most of Eastern Washington and North Idaho that was championed by controversial former state Rep. Matt Shea. In 2019, Christina helped organize a fundraising gala for the effort that featured Shea as a speaker.

Reporting by the Guardian that same year revealed Christina was a member of a private chat group with Shea and other figures tied to the far-right and Christian nationalist movement, where they would discuss violence against perceived adversaries, support for white nationalism and their belief that civil war is imminent, and request surveillance of political opponents.

The group chat included former Spokane Valley councilmen Mike Munch and Caleb Collier, Idaho Rep. Heather Scott and Anne Byrd, who is married to Barry Byrd, pastor of Marble Community Fellowship in northern Stevens County. In 1988, Barry Byrd helped pen a Christian Identity manifesto that referred to Jews as “anti-Christs” and condemned interracial marriage, though the Byrds have since tried to distance themselves from racist ideology, as reported by The Spokesman-Review.

Miceli spent 32 years in active duty serving in various roles, including combat arms, combat service support and acquisitions, he detailed in his responses. He holds two master’s degrees in national resource strategy and management, from National Defense University and Webster University. He is a University High School graduate and hopes to identify efficiencies within the office’s processes if selected, he said.

Yefremov identified himself as a first-generation Russian immigrant with experience building multiple successful businesses. He is the founder and president of Royal Enterprise, a trucking company in Airway Heights, and previously founded and ran an online payment processing company and a company that developed financial management tools for businesses.

A Spokane resident since 1998, Yefremov said he hopes to help restore Spokane to the “conservative stronghold” it was when he arrived.

Following the nomination of three candidates at the Jan. 18 meeting, the Spokane County Commission must then vote to appoint one of those three within 60 days of when the vacancy was created. If the board fails to do so, Gov.-elect Bob Ferguson would make the appointment. The treasurer’s seat will be back up for election next year.

“It’s a good process,” Linebarger said. “And these three that we do nominate, we think will be high quality.”

Editor’s note: This article was updated Jan. 7, 2025, to accurately reflect the end of Poulson’s tenure with Spokane Public Schools. She resigned.